Monthly Archives: October 2009

My friend needed a better looking paintjob on his Chainsaw prop for Halloween. Here’s the results.

Here’s what it looked like before I painted it:

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We entered the school fair Halloween Costume Contest this weekend. They didn’t have a Sci-Fi category this year so we entered the Most Original Category.

Commander-X got 2nd place. He got beat out by Mario. Hmmm, I think I’m missing something here!! I’ll let you decide for yourself but I don’t think Mario is in the same league as Commander-X.

There was also a cartoon and game character category which is where Mario should have been entered. Maybe his brother Luigi won that category!!

If you want a MOST ORIGINAL costume like the one Mario wore, you can buy it HERE!!

Here’s a few turnaround shots of the final costume. Today is the Costume Contest!! I’ll post pics from the event.

We finally put the whole costume together and here is the result.

Here’s the logo that Commander-X and I designed.

I stayed up late last night and assembled the gun. I added the weathering also.

I think I’m finally done with this piece!! YAY!

Close up of Ray Stream Suppressor.

Close up of Alien Disintegration Gun.

I finally got the EL Wire which has a 9V driver. It features an adjustable strobe or constant-on mode and an adjustable dimmer.

It was square and bulky and I couldn’t figure out where to put it. I wanted the gun and tube self contained so it had to fit on the tube somewhere.
I literally spend 5 hours trying to figure it out. Finally I decided to redesign the gun and hide it in the tube. (I don’t think my son liked the plunger anyway!) I cut the driver down and moving the battery area and it fits perfectly inside the tube. I might rig up a switch for it but right now I unscrew the front part of the barrel off which is pretty easy.

Here’s the new and improved gun!! I’ll weather it tomorrow. There is 20 feet of EL wire in there.

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I fine tuned a few things like painting the top 2 lights and fixing the LED cover. I also added a yellow warning sticker. Today I get the EL wire and will get pics of that as soon as I can.

Almost done! I added some weathering and metal textures today. It’s hard to get a good photo of the piece!

Today I had to build a smaller box to house a blinking LED. It took forever to figure out. After that I primed all the parts.

Primer

After that I sprayed the whole thing with Black Truck Bed Paint.
I painted a few pieces with Silver for contrast.

Tomorrow I’ll finish the wiring and then start on the weathering and add a few more details.

I finally made some progress on the build!! Mounting all the parts was tricky. I wanted the pack to be rugged and found some good solutions.

I added the light and wired up the switch and batteries. I couldn’t find anything to put the batteries in but found a tupperware piece at Target that works great.

I mounted the light and wired the battery box

Lit up without the grill

Lit up with the grill

3/4 view unlit

3/4 view lit

Here’s the pack in action!

Here’s a new section called Props and Costumes. I’ll start off with my son’s Alien Buster Costume.
It has a ways to go and I’ll post pics as I go.

Here’s the backpack and blaster. It will be painted and weathered with lights and stuff.

Test fitting.

Here’s his Lovely Alien Busting assistant!